Musical wind instrument



Juli, 1931. V s 1,814,456

MUSICAL WIND INSTRUMENT Filed July 8, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1- July 14, 1931. L. RIVES MUSICAL WIND INSTRUMENT Filed July 8. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 14, 1931 PATENT OFFICE LOGAN RIVES, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA MUSICAL XVIND INSTRUMENT Application filed July 8, 1930. Serial No. 468, ;52.

My invention pertains to musical instruments, particularly of the type known as wood wind instruments, including the saxophone type, and has to do with an improvement in 5 the keyboard or in the keying used to sound the different tones in the musical scale.

The main object of my invention is an arrangement of the keys so that the keys for any two consecutive half tones are placed adjacent one another, and preferably, parallel to each other, said keys being close together so that in the usual playing it is only neces sary to place the fingers on either one of the two adjacent keys or both keys of a pair at a time to obtain half or full tones.

Another object and feature of my invention is an arrangement of the keyboard on a wood wind type of instrument, including saxophones, which may be likened somewhat to a 2 piano keyboard in 11 ring a series of parallel keys to operate consecutive tones and half tones in the musical scale, the dillerence being that in some cases it is necessary to press down two adjacent keys to obtain a full tone,

5 and by depressing either one of said keys the sounding of the sharp or flat of such tone may be obtained. These keys are preferably pivoted so as to move in parallel planes, and are positioned sufficiently close together so that the player does not need to unnecessarily stretch the fingers apart.

In this connection a further object of my invention is the construction of a keyboard for a wood wind instrument with connections 33 to the stoppers having the pads to open and close the holes in the pipes arranged so that children or other players having small hands and a small linger stretch can successfully learn and play the instruments.

Another detailed object and feature of my invention is the arrangement of the keyboard with the keys substantially parallel and moving in parallel planes and with a connection from each key to a stopper havin a pad controlling a particular opening in the tube of the instrument, the stoppers being positioned longitudinally of the tube of the instrument without reference to the particular position of the key governing such stopper; and I provide a mechanical connection from each key to the stopper so that the operation of any particular key controls the stopper connected thereto. Hence, by my construction the keys may be placed close together and, as mentioned above, operated in parallel planes, the stoppers controlled by such keys being positioned considerable distances apart considered longitudinally of the tube of the instrument.

In constructing an instrument with my keyboard it is obvious that the keys may be pivoted in any suitable manner and have any desirable connection from the key itself to the stopper controlling the opening in the tube of the instrument, but with my construction it is essential that all of the keys move in parallel planes.

The consecutive keys are connected to the proper stoppers so that by playing such consecutive keys a person may play a chromatic scale, that is, giving all the full and the half tones, and by depressing certain pairs of adjacent keys and the proper sin gle keys the diatonic scale may be played, this giving the so-called full tones. By having the keys operate in parallel planes and positioned close together it is a simple matter to depress two keys to obtain the proper full tone or to play either key to obtain the half tone below or above such full tone.

My arrangement of keyboard with the stoppers may control keys which open a hole or opening in the tube of the instrument or close such hole, as the stopper may be held by a suitable spring in the desired position; i. e. either open or closed.

My invention illustrated in connection with the accompanying drawings,in which Fig. l is a plan taken in the direction of the arrow 1 of Fig. 2 showing a simple form of my invention having the keys pivot on opposite sides of the tube.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation taken in the direction of the arrow 2 of Fig. l.

c a a l\ V Flg. 3 1S a transverse section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a key and its connected stopper.

Fig. 5 is a plan of another form of my intube.

vention having the keys all pivoting on one side of the tube, taken in the direction of the arrow 5 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation taken in the direction of the arrow 6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a transverse section on the line 77 of Fig. 6 in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 8 is a plan of a further modified construction employing a pair of tubes with upper and lower stoppers.

Fig. 9 is a transverse section taken on the line 99 of Fig. 8.

Referring first to the construction of Figs. 1, 2, and 3. These illustrate a wind musical instrument having a tube 11 with a mouthpiece 12, this mouthpiece being illustrated as having a reed 13 and with a tube 14 con nected to the mouthpiece. The tube has a series of holes or openings 15 on opposite sides, these being positioned in the illustration to give a full octave including the whole and the semi-tones.

On each side of the tube I build up a frame 16 which has a series of legs 17. Mounted in these legs there is a long pivot pin 18,

there being a pivot pin on each side of the tube. At different positions on the pivot pins I mount sleeves 19, and each sleeve has a key 20. The keys are illustrated as having a hub section 21 welded or otherwise secured to the sleeve 19, an ofiset section 22, and a finger piece 23. Each sleeve also has an arm 24 connected thereto which carries a stopper 25, such stopper having the usual soft pad 26 In the present illustration the stoppers are always kept in the closed position, thus closing the holes in the tubes, and are drawn in by tension springs 27, such springs being attached to a bar 29 which extends along the top of the tube and is secured in the leg structures 17.

Necessarily, the sleeves are of difierent lengths in accordance with the position in which the stopper is required to engage the hole and are to be arranged so that the finger pieces of the keys will swing in parallel planes.

As illustrated in Fig. 3 the finger pieces, when in the normal rest position, are substantially horizontal. The chromatic scale may be played by pressing the various keys in succession from one end of the instrument to the other, and the diatonic scale may be played by pressing a pair of adjacent keys which shift the stoppers to give a full tone. Also, to play the diatonic scale will require the operation of adjacent keys to play the B and C, and E and F notes on the scale as these are only ahalf tone apart.

The modification illustrated in Figs. 5, 6, and 7 has the stoppers operating on a single tube and with a pivotal connection of the stoppers and keys all on the same side of the In this arrangement the mouthpiece 30 is indicated as having an exciter reed 31. A main tube 32 and a secondary tube 33 are connected to the mouthpiece. These tubes with the mouthpiece form an air column vibrating as a single air column. The main tube is provided with a series of openings 34 closable by the various stoppers.

In this arrangement I employ a frame designated generally at 35 which employs a series of brackets 36 with an outer and an inner long pivot pin 37 and 38 mounted in these brackets. A series of sleeves 39 are mounted on either one or the other of the pintle pins and each sleeve carries an arm 40 having a stopper 41, the stoppers being positloned to close the various openings. Each sleeve also has a key 42 connected thereto and the stopper and key may be a considerable distance apart or they may be close together as indicated by some of the connecting stoppers and keys in Fig. 5. In this construction coiled sprin 43 are utilized to normally hold the stoppers open. The keys are each provided with a finger piece 44, and these finger pieces are arranged to operate in parallel planes and their pivot points are in close proximity, the pivot pins 37 and 38 being placed as close together as is practicable.

In this arrangement it is sometimes necessary to have a key with a side extension, indicated at 45, in order to bring the finger pieces close together. In this arrangement the chromatic scale is played by depressing all'of the keys in consecutive order, thus giving all of the semi-tones of the scale. To play the diatonic scale certain pairs of keys are depressed simultaneously by the finger overlapping two finger pieces and thus controlling two adjacent stoppers and giving a full tone. In playing the diatonic scale, for certain tones it is also necessary to play two consecutive keys giving the half tone spacing.

In the construction of Figs. 8 and 9 I illustrate a mouthpiece 46-having a vibrating reed 47 and with two tubes 48 and 49 each having stopper openings 50. It will be noted in this construction that the openings are on the top and bottom of the tubes and are ar-Q of the tubes have springs 59 tensioned to lift the stoppers and thus holdthe openings in the top of the tubes constantly open. There are also springs or similar devices holding the stoppers closed on the lower openings of the tubes. The keys are arranged a half tone apart and positioned so that certain pairs of keys maybe depressed, if desired, by the same finger and thus give a full tone.

Certain of the keys 60 are arranged with a laterally extending tab 61 which overlaps the finger piece of the adjacent key 62 as illustrated in Fig. 8. In such an instance the key 62 may be depressed without operating the key 60, but if such key 60 is depressed the tab 61 engaging the adjacent finger piece of the next key will also operate this latter key. However, in this construction the tone given by depressing the key 60 will be formed by that given by actuating the stopper connected to the key 62 and the stopper connected to the key 60, but the tone given by depressing key 62 alone is only that given to the action of the stopper connected to such latter key. In this arrangement I have a construc'ion in which the depression of single keys gives halt tones relative to the adjacent keys, and in which depressing certain of the keys having the overlapping tab gives a tone produced by sounding two consecutive tones.

In the constructions illustrated the tubes and the mouthpiece connector form a single air column which musically vibrates as a single column. However, my arrangement of keyboard is suitable for other types of wood wind instruments. The keyboard, it will be noted, has all the finger pieces operating in parallel arcs and the keys are positioned so as to be readily controlled by a person having small hands. The finger pieces are placed so close together that it is not necessary to unduly stretch the hand to play the instrument.

Various changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim 1. A musical wind instrument comprising in combination a tube having a mouthpiece for exciting the air column therein and having openings, a keyboard having pivotally mounted keys, said keys being parallel and operating in parallel planes, a stopper operatively connected to each key, said keys being arranged in groups, there being at least as many keys in a group as the fingers of one hand, the said keys when operated in consecutive order sounding a chromatic scale, certain of the keys being sutliciently close together to allow depression of a pair by a single finger, and the depression of single keys and said certain pairs in succession sounding a diatonic scale.

2. A musical wind instrument comprising in combination a tube with a mouthpiece and having a plurality of openings, a keyboard having a plurality of pivotally mounted keys, said keys being parallel and operating in parallel planes, the keys being arranged in groups and engageable by the fingers from opposite sides of the tube, a pivotally mounted stopper operatively connected to each key and controlling an opening, certain of the keys being sufiiciently close together to allow depression of two keys by a single finger, the operation of consecutive keys in succession giving a chromatic scale, and the operation of some of the adjacent keys in succession and certain pairs of keys giving a diatonic scale.

3. A musical wind instrument as claimed in claim 2, certain of thekeys having a laterally extendin tab extending over an adjacent key, the key having the tab when operated depressing the said adjacent key.

4. A musical wind instrument comprising in combination a tube with a mouthpiece and havin a plurality of openings, a pivot pin extending longitudinally of the tube and having a plurality of keys pivotally mounted thereon, said keys operating in parallel planes, and a stopper operatively connected to each key, the said keys when operated in consecutive order playing a chromatic scale,

certain pairs of keys being sufiiciently close together to be depressed by a single finger, and such pairs with the adjacent keys playing a diatonic scale.

5. A musical wind instrument comprising in combination a tube with a mouthpiece and having a plurality of openings, pair of pivot pins extending longitudinally of the tube, each pin having a number of keys pivotally mounted thereon, said keys being parallel and operating in parallel planes, each key having a sleeve with a stopper connected thereto, certain of the keys being sufiiciently close together for depression by a single finger, the keys when operated in consecutive order playing a chromatic scale, and certain of the consecutive keys with two adjacent keys depressed together playing a diatonic scale.

6. A musical instrument comprising in combination a tube with a mouthpiece and having a plurality of openings, a pair of pivot pins one on each side of the tube, each pivot pin having a plurality of keys pivotally mounted thereon, said keys being parallel and operating in parallel planes, a sleeve connected to each key and a stopper connected to each sleeve, certain of the keys being sufliciently close together to be depressed by a single finger and playing a whole tone, the other keys playing half tones.

7 A musical wind instrument comprising in combination a tube with a mouthpiece and having a plurality of openings, a keyboard having groups of pivotally mounted keys, said keys being parallel and operating in parallel planes, a stopper operatively connected to each key, certain of said keysbeing sufficiently close together to be operated by a single finger, other keys having a tab overlapping an adjacent key whereby depression of the key having the tab or of two keys by a single finger plays a whole tone, the other keys playing half tones. I

8. musical wind instrument as claimed in 5 claim 7, the groups of keys being pivotally mounted on opposite sides of the tube on pivots extending longitudinally of such tubes. 9. A musical wind instrument comprising in combination a pair of tubes with a connecting mouthpiece and forming therewith a single air column, the tubes each having a plurality of openings, a keyboard comprising a plurality of pivotally mounted parallel keys operating in parallel planes, the planes being transverse to the tube, a stopper for each key, certain of thestoppers closing and opening on depression of a key and other stoppers releasing and opening, certain of the keys being sufliciently close together for dey pression by a single finger, the keys depressed y a single finger playing a whole tone, and the individual keys playing half tones.

10. A musical Wind instrument as claimed in claim 9, the keys being arranged in groups '25 having pivots on opposite sides of the tubes,

the keys in one group being adapted to be operated by the fingers of one hand extending over the tubes from one side, the keys of the other group to be operated by the fingers of go the other hand extending over the tubes from the other side.

11. In a musical wind instrument a keyboard having a plurality of parallel keys operating in parallel planes, each key having a stopper operatively connected thereto, the said keys in consecutive order being half tones apart and the operation of certain two adjacent keys giving whole tones, and a mounting for said keyboard and stoppers at i tachable to the tube of a wood wind instrument. In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

LOGAN RIVES. 

